It's a Small World--Eastern Washington State College

I live in a typical suburban, midwest neighborhood. The houses here are owned, primarily, by either young families or older, empty-nesters. The other day my family and I were out taking a walk and met one of our neighbor couples. After chit-chatting for awhile, it turns out that the woman had family members who live in Kennewick Washington. Kennewick is one of the Tri-Cities...a trio of cities in southeastern Washington...1716 miles away! And, here we were in the same neighbohood in Bloomington, Indiana.

Talking more, it turns out that her father was a kicker/punter for the Kennewick Lions and went onto Eastern Washington State College on a football scholarship. EWSC would eventually become Eastern Washington University, the place I began my academic career, met my wife, etc...

Later in the day, this same neighbor dropped by our house with a bit of memorabelia her father had given her from his football glory days:

Catch-up Catch-up

Almost 2 weeks since the last post. Lots has happened. I've finished up my tenure dossier...a little thing that encapsulates the work of the last 10 years. That took a little bit of time, and I keep pretty good records! Now the full faculty of The Department meet to discuss my case and vote whether to send it up the line to the next level. It's out of my hands now...I'll keep you updated as things go along.

Also I've been preparing for a new semester. Two classes this semester:

T344--Programming Strategies
and
T511--Research Methods in Audience Analysis

Looking forward to both of them. And, even though I've taught them before, they took time to prepare. Especially since the graduate one is meeting only once a week this semester...and the last time I taught it we met twice a week. Had to shrink everything into have the days.

And, there was a dissertation that I had to read, written by Zheng Wang who is going to join the faculty of Ohio State University. The dissertation was terrific, but as it was dealing with mathematical models of channel-changing behaviors and physiological reactions to media, it was not an easy read. But, the results were very exciting and I would expect to see MANY MANY pieces of research in top-tier journals in years to come. Congratulations to Dr. Wang.

And, last week was orientation week for new graduate students. Always an exciting time, filled with new possibilities. One of the things we do during orientation week is hold Area of Interest Meetings (AIMs). I was involved in one that was actually just a tour of the ICR, and one on the cognitive processing of media (which also included professors Fox, Grabe & Lang).

Another one I was a part of was the All Things Audio meeting. Often, in departments such as this, you are lucky to have even a single faculty member interested in audio issues. Most production AND research people focus primarily on the visual. But, our department is FORTUNATE to have three faculty members who are interested in sound/audio/music in some form or another. Andrew Bucksbarg, Norb Hebert and I hosted the group of students who are also interested in audio in their own ways. It was a blast.

But, busy.

Here's a link to a fascinating site that I actually got from the All Things Audio AIM. You should check it out:

peter chilvers generative music site

Can't Spot Too Good to Be True? Let the FTC help you.

Day after day desperate consumers buy products that claim to be effective in curing such maladies as baldness, impotence, obesity, and diabetes. The government has agencies that hold news conferences, print brochures and produce public service announcements trying to warn us that if something is too good to be true, IT IS!!!

But, when surfing the web we don't think about what we know...especially if we are surfing trying to find solutions to our woes. So, the FTC has started to try and protect us in a novel way...by producing fake websites that try to get you to purchase a fake product (using the same tactics other actual sham products use). When you click the "order now" link, the government agency snaps you back into reality...

Check it out yourself!

Thanks to IU Dept. of Telecomm Law & Policy professor Herb Terry for bringing it to my attention!

Can you tell summer's almost over? FINALLY Last Busan Update

Now that I'm back in Bloomington...and over jet lag...and as the end of the summer creeps closer...I have been focused on getting a little bit of work done. But, now other things I want to blog about are cropping up so I want to wrap up the thoughts and pics from my trip to South Korea.

When we left off on my travel-log, I was leaving the APEC convention location and the skies over Pusan were opening up for a terrible thunderstorm. So, without the possibility of any outside activities, we decided to visit some indoor shopping malls for me to find a gift for my son. I don't quite know how we had gotten upon the topic, occassionally during my trip my host, Professor Kwon, told me the story of Wal-Mart's attempt to enter the Korean market--an attempt that eventually failed. Now, certainly there are many sides to this story, most likely. But according to Kwon, Wal-Mart thought that the same approach they use in the US would translate successfully to Korea: Low prices and high-volume purchases. But, in a country where space is extremely limited (click here for a posting showing XXX a stack of almost identical restaruants stacked on top of each other because of their last of space), the possibility of buying 15 rolls of paper towels is pretty rediculous.

So, Wal-Mart sold their Korean stores to a Korean company that changed the names to E-Mart. And, off Kwon and I went to E-Mart in a pouring thunderstorm.

Of course, there were differences. Parking lots that were, well, actually parking 6-story parking garages. And, each ROW of the parking garages was headed by an EMART employee who either crossed their arms in front of themselves to let you know there were no spaces in that row...or they waived you in if there was an opening. But, regardless, as your car passed by they bowed to you. And not in a "this-is-an-hourly-job-that-I'll-quit-as-soon-as-possible" way. With seeming actual pride in the job they were doing and glad we were there.

Then, just like the parking lot, the store itself was multiple floors. Imagine hundreds of people with shopping carts going up and down flat escalators (I'm sorry I dont' have pictures of that). But, I did take pictures of carts...or at least a part of a cart. Check this out:

Each cart is locked to each other when you enter the store. To unlock it, you need to put in a 100 Won coin. The reason? Because E-Mart knows that even for the equivalent of less than 10-cents, their customers will bring their carts back to get that coin back. And...THEY DO...they all bring them back to the store after depositing their groceries in their cars. No carts in the parking lots...incredible! Oh, here's instructions for those new to the system:

Another thing that was surprising to me was just how LOUD the place was. While the outdoor fish markets were mostly quiet (a surprise in hindsight only), this place was hoppin' with E-Mart employees trying to get you to come over and look at their fish, or kimchee, or whatever. Here's one guy who posed for me...I was so over-the-top with being an obvious tourist...I mean, imagine seeing someone in your local Wal-Mart snapping digital photos every 50 feet...

Before I visited I used to tell my Korean students that I liked kimchi. To me, that was self-explanatory, because I thought there was only one kind...made of spiced/fermented cabage.

But, now I know that just about ANYTHING can actually be kimchied (?). Here's a picture I took of an entire display case of different kimchis. I'd have taken a better one, but apparently this was a counter operated by a particular brand of kimchi. The moment I took a pic the woman behind the counter came scurrying out and told Professor Kwon that these were trade secrets!

So, I'm almost to the end of my my pictures. It was, again, an unforgetable trip and I hope you enjoyed my retelling of it. I thank you for visiting my site to stay up to date, and thanks to those who leave comments every once in awhile.

To truly thank you, I'm leaving you with just a picture of me singing karoke to "With or Without You" by U2. No audio.

But, check this out and just imagine my face superimposed over Bono's.

Busan Korea Catch-Up Part 2

Well, I'm now almost completely back on EDT. Now just gave to get completely back in the swing of things in the office...the final push of writing and research before the summer is over.

BUT FIRST, another look bak at my fantastic trip to South Korea.

We're up to my final day, which was Sunday. Woke up rather early and went for a walk across the Kyoungsung University campus and into part of the city. One of the first things I came upon was their library (which also contains their student athletic rec center, a performance hall, and their Dept. of Dance). Outside is a cage of about 1000 square feet that contains about 5 huge sea eagles like these (sorry for the out-of-focus).

After a (much-needed) relaxing morning sitting around the guest house, Professor Kwon picked me up and we went up onto a hill that is behind Kyoungsung where I got a great view of part of Busan...through the humid haze:

Now, let me give a little aside. I flew over on Northwest Airlines (although many on my trip referred to it as "Northworst" I honestly didn't have a problem with them). Their in-flight magazine did a story on Dubai, and one of the little inset pics showed indoor skiing in the desert city. Couldn't believe it. I thought to myself "How cool [I often use puns when talking to myself] would that be, to go skiing when it's burning hot outside!"

Well, to add to this incredible trip...guess what Busan has? That's right, it's the Snow Castle is right on this very same hill. And, even though they were just getting ready for a grand opening August 11, we happened to be there on a day when they were having a by-invitatation-only event to have people try the facility out. We thought, for a few minutes, that we were going to actually be able to rent skis, equipment, and such. But, turns out we needed to have been invited. Still, Kwon was able to talk them into giving us 2 entry passes so we could at least take pictures from "the slope."

From below freezing to back outside, where it was 87-degrees and very humid. Off we went to the Westin Chosun, Busan. George W. Bush stayed in this hotel during the APEC summit in 2005. In fact, he rented the entire hotel for security purposes. Or, rather, I helped pay for him to rent the entire hotel during his stay.

We walked from the Westin to the actual APEC Center where the conference actually took place.
A glace over my shoulder revealed the beach which I'd seen during my trip to the Busan Aquarium. However, Professor Kwon told me that this weekend over 1 million people would be on this beach EACH DAY. Couldn't believe it.




So, here I am in front of the space-ship looking APEC center...which is now pretty much a museum dedicated to this bit of international relations in Dynamic Busan.

Me in front of the tapestry that welcomes visitors. In it are the 12 symbols of longevity: sun, cloud, mountain, rock, water, crane, deer, turtle, pine tree, herb of eternal youth (!?!), bamboo, and mythical peach.

Where President Bush sat. Joined on each side by Vietnam and Thailand.

An "artistic shot" of the conference center. I took this just before the thunder we'd been hearing was joined by rain and lightning. We ran to the car in time to get stuck in having 1 million beach goers come off the beach.

With no more captive audience, the advertising blimps were grounded.

So, with the rain pouring down, we went shopping at the Korean version of Walmart...E-Mart.

Impressions on that next time.

South Korea Catch Up--Part 1

I am now back in the States, safely home in Bloomington Indiana. In fact, I am sitting at a table in the Starbucks loated in the basement of the IU building that houses the ICR. I'm NOT drinking any coffee, though, because my hope is to be able to go home and have a nap this afternoon. Everyone told me that the jet lag was most difficult returning to the States...and they are right. I have tried to get back in the swing of the EDT-zone...but today I am even more groggy then when I first came back.

Of course, some of my fatigue may be due to the fact that I sightseed (?) my tail off while I was in Busan...and that is just now catching up to me. The hectic schedule also kept me from blogging much after the second day there...so I know that I have a lot to catch up on. Since I just missed my bus, I figured I'd get some on it chronicled while I wait for the next one.

So, where was I?

I had mentioned that we went out to a wine bar the night after my talk. The next morning Professors Auh and Kwon met me for breakfast. When they said that we were going to have "cod soup and rice" I was not particularly looking foward to it...not my idea of breakfast fare. But, I must admit that it was delicious. Here's a picture of my two breakfast companions:

After breakfast, Professor Auh (on the left) had to catch a subway ride to the KTX train to take him back to Seoul. Professor Kwon and I met in his office at Kyungsung University to discuss ways that we could collaborate on research projects in the future. Then, I'm sure so that he could get some actual work done rather than just cart me all over the country, Kwon and I parted ways and Soyung Bae (a current masters student of mine, and former student of Professor Kwon AND Professor Auh) and her friend Shin Ju took me to Gyeongju province to do more sightseeing. This was once a major city under the Shilla kingdom---the conqourer of the other two kingdoms around 600 AD. Since Shilla officially supported Buddhism, one of the main attractions here is the Bulguksa temple. Here are some pictures from there:

Inside this main gate--off to the side (behind the orange panels in the above picture) --were huge carvings of temple gaurds

The one of the left was apparently going to anhialate all intruders with his mean mandolin.

Here are some of the inspiring and old pieces of beauty. A drum:

A pagoda
An 18.9-ton bell...And some paintings on the wood ornamenture of the ceiling.

This painting is remeniscent (to me) of the carvings/paintings of native americans I've seen in the Pacific Northwest. I didn't say anything about this at first...but then we went to the tumuli burial mounds in Hwangnam-ri

It reminded me strongly of the almost identical Native American burial ground in Moundville Alabama that my wife and I visited when we lived in Tuscaloosa.

So, now you know what I did on Day three. More later...including shots of me skiing...well, almost. Check back.